Using Powdered Peppers in Hot Sauce (and some other things)

[Shpongled]

Hey guys,
 
So I am new to making hot sauce and I want to give it a whirl.  But, I am feeling wild and want to make some super hot stuff!  So I found a place that sells Carolina Reaper and Bhut Jolokia peppers powedered.  I have a few questions about using these…
 
I used the search function but it said the database was having an error so I'm sorry if this has been asked before.
 
So, first of all, are there any advantages or disadvantages to using powder over a fresh or dried pepper?  The Carolina Reapers are hard to source online it seems, though I've only been looking today so far.  Since I found powder, I figured it might be an easier way to start and might be easier to source.
 
Is there a good way to determine how much I would need for what I'm doing?  Obviously, the amount I put in will be up to me, but I mean, how much powder to equal how many peppers?  I read in another thread something around 1 tablespoon is 7 grams.  But I suppose each pepper weighs a different amount.  I read somewhere that ghost peppers are about 4 grams each, is that about right?  I can't find anything for Carolina Reapers though.  So if I wanted to put like 20 ghost peppers in, I would assume it would be about 80 grams?  A little under 3 oz. of powder then?
 
Does anybody have any average idea of how many of each of those peppers would be used in a very hot sauce?  I sort of want to try mixing them, so I might experiement in that regard, but I want to keep within somewhat of a sane range here. 
 
Also, if anybody has any general tips about using these, specifically the Carolina Reapers since I can't find as much info on them, feel free to share.  I'm open to all information I can get as this is the beginning of my journey.
 
Thanks everybody!
 
Shpongled

 

[RocketMan]

First off Welcome to THP!
 
There are great things about using powders to make sauce like
 
1. It's easier to measure powder than fresh peppers and to repeat it.
2. Easier to adjust the amount if you need more
3. No seeds to remove
 
How much you add depends on how much sauce your making and how hot you want the sauce to be and how hot the pepper powder is. For an example let use Orange Hab powder as a reference. so for a 64 ounces, that's 12 bottles and a little left over so a case of 5 oz Woozies. For a mild sauce start with 1 Teaspoon, for medium double it to 2 teaspoons and for a hot sauce go to 3 teaspoons. Mind these are starting points and you'll adjust from there. Also bear in mind that if these are for other people than Chili heads, the average person, say 75% of all people a good hot Jalapeno is going to be considered Extremely hot.
 
Welcome to the fun Shpongled. What ever you do post it up and don't forget to post lots of pictures. We all love out pepper porn

 

[Shpongled]

First off Welcome to THP!
 
There are great things about using powders to make sauce like
 
1. It's easier to measure powder than fresh peppers and to repeat it.
2. Easier to adjust the amount if you need more
3. No seeds to remove
 
How much you add depends on how much sauce your making and how hot you want the sauce to be and how hot the pepper powder is. For an example let use Orange Hab powder as a reference. so for a 64 ounces, that's 12 bottles and a little left over so a case of 5 oz Woozies. For a mild sauce start with 1 Teaspoon, for medium double it to 2 teaspoons and for a hot sauce go to 3 teaspoons. Mind these are starting points and you'll adjust from there. Also bear in mind that if these are for other people than Chili heads, the average person, say 75% of all people a good hot Jalapeno is going to be considered Extremely hot.
 
Welcome to the fun Shpongled. What ever you do post it up and don't forget to post lots of pictures. We all love out pepper porn

Awesome, thank you!
 
It dawned on me after posting that the amount would depend entirely on the total amount made.  64 ounces seems like a pretty good starting point once I get a recipe I like down. 
 
If I could ask you another question, how do you go about ensuring that you reach the desired amount with everything still proportionately measured?  So, if I want to start off with say, 10 ounces (if that sounds reasonable?) how do I decide how much vinegar, peppers, lemon juice etc. I would need to reach 10 ounces?
 
I'm really quite new to this so I want to start with something manageable but eventually I'd like to start whipping up big batches once I'm comfortable with how I'm working. 
 
As soon as I get something created, I will be sure to post up all kinds of pics!
 
Thanks again!

 

[RocketMan]

In the industry it's called Scaling a Recipe. Here's a little tutorial I keep around for when I need to do it:
 
It doesn't matter whether you're increasing a recipe or decreasing it — the procedure for adjusting the ingredient quantities for a different number of portions is the same. We call this scaling a recipe.
 
The first thing you need to do is calculate your conversion factor, which is a number you're going to use to convert all the quantities. There's a tiny bit of math involved, but it's OK to use a calculator — that's what they're there for!

To find your conversion factor, simply divide the desired number of Ounces by the original number of Ounces. The resulting number is your conversion factor. Here's the formula:
 
Desired Ounces
————————  = conversion factor
Original Ounces
 
Scaling that 10 Ounce recipe down to 6 Ounce involves two steps:
 
1.        Divide 6 by 10, which gives you a conversion factor of 0.6.
 
2.        Multiply each ingredient amount by 0.6.
 
Let's work through a simple example to illustrate how this works. Say your recipe calls for 2 quarts of chicken stock. All you need to do is multiply 2 quarts by your conversion factor of 0.6:
 
2 quarts × 0.6 = 1.2 quarts chicken stock
 
Great! But wait a second... What exactly is 1.2 quarts? Well, questions like that are why most of the world uses the metric system. The rest of us are going to have to convert 1.2 quarts into ounces. There are 32 ounces in a quart, so:
 
32 × 1.2 = 38.4 ounces
 
We can round that down to about 38 ounces, but that's still kind of a weird amount. It'd be more clear if it were given in cups, wouldn't it? There are 8 ounces in a cup, so:
 
38 ÷ 8 = 4.75
 
Which means 1.2 quarts is equal to approximately 4¾ cups. That's all there is to it!

 

[Shpongled]

In the industry it's called Scaling a Recipe. Here's a little tutorial I keep around for when I need to do it:

Awesome, thank you so much for all the quick help.
 
So basically, I can experiment, making notes of what and how much of what I put in it, and not worry about the final outcome - and then when I'm ready to make a set batch amount, I can simply convert back to the desired amount?  Seems to make good sense.  I guess starting out I will just jump in and experiment!
 
If anybody else has any info on using powder and the pros and cons of it, or any info on Carolina Reaper that might be useful/relevant, I am still eager to learn more!